The present invention relates to an input device used in a personal computer, a portable data terminal, and a home appliance, and to an inputting method with the input device.
Data processing technologies have been improved, electronic devices have a higher performance and lower cost, and information services over the Internet have been accordingly expanded worldwide. In particular, each information apparatus such as a portable data terminal designed for using at an outside location is equipped with no keyboard, which is installed in a PC, but a touch panel operated with a pen or the like. The touch panel is widely employed as an inputting device especially for elder people and children.
In an information apparatus, such as a portable data terminal, equipped with a touch panel, repeating to input data with a pen twice in a particular area of the touch panel within a particular interval time is qualified as a xe2x80x9cdouble tap operationxe2x80x9d. The apparatus often operates at the double tap in a different manner than a single-tap operation for inputting data. For the double tap operation, the touch panel has to be touched with the pen at a slightly greater pressure than a certain amount, the pressure then decreases below the amount, and then, the same operation at slightly greater pressure than the certain amount has to be performed within a certain interval time at a position within a particular distance from a position of the first tap.
When a user securely holds the touch panel of the portable data terminal, the user is conscious of tapping the panel twice at substantially the same position within a short time. The consciousness may however make the user tap the panel with the pen at an adequate pressure for the first tap but at a less pressure for the second tap. The consciousness may also make the user perform the second tap without leaving the pen enough from the panel after the first tap. As a result, the user often fails to perform the double tap operation.
An input device and an inputting method are provided in which a user inputs a data with a double tap operation even when the user performs the second tap at a small pressure. A pressure for a valid second tap of a double tap operation is smaller than that for a valid first tap.
An input device, an inputting method, and a recording medium for storing a program of the inputting method are provided in which a user inputs data with a double tap operation even when the user does not decrease a pressure after the first tap. A pressure for judging that the first tap is released is set greater than an ordinary pressure.